More Departures, Peanut Butter Has Left the Bread

Brad Garlinghouse, author of the Peanut Butter memo, is out. So is head of search Vish Makhijani. And others. Who will be left? What a mess. Sad, sad mess. Word is that another re-org is on the way. Has to be, because there's no one left to run it,…

Brad Garlinghouse, author of the Peanut Butter memo, is out. So is head of search Vish Makhijani. And others. Who will be left? What a mess. Sad, sad mess. Word is that another re-org is on the way. Has to be, because there’s no one left to run it, so it all needs to report to one place. Yahoo is very close to being a distressed property, it feels like. Or is it already?

On the other hand – if you take a more critical look at the folks who left – what have these guys delivered. Especially Mr. Peanut Butter. There have always been talk about the “potential” to transform Yahoo!’s various community assets into something more powerful. But nothing materialised. (Mr. Flickr’s resignation letter alludes to the same too).

While the exit of these folks may be good – I wonder what the way forward is. IMO, if that is sensible – then all is well. If not – one has to wonder where the organization is headed in the medium term

This is an opportunity for Yahoo! to reengineer and regroup. If they really want to compete in the search marketplace, they need some new ideas anyway — especially less complex ideas than Yahoo! Pipes.

Someone has to fill the leadership positions being vacated. That’s not always a bad thing in the long run.